Schumer, Clinton: Congress Backs $2 Million For Central Ny Defense Projects
US Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton today announced that Congress approved $2 million in the 2005 Defense Department spending bill for Central New York defense projects. Projects to be funded under the bill include $1 million for the Rome Air Force Research Laboratorys Joint Battlespace Infosphere project and $1 million for Cortland Cables synthetic material arresting cable development project. The bill must now be sent to the President and eventually signed into law.
"With so many of our sons and daughters serving in uniform today, this funding is good news both at home in the Central New York area and abroad," Senator Schumer said. "This money will help give our troops the most technologically advanced equipment possible. From the Infosphere project to Cortland Cable, these projects made in the Central New York area will allow our armed forces to be as effective as they can possibly be."
As a Senator, and especially since joining the Senate Armed Services Committee, I have been very impressed by the research, technologies and skills that Central New York has to offer to our national defense. This region is playing a critical role in developing technologies that can be adopted by the military. Funding for these projects means that we are supporting New York's cuttingedge knowledge and expertise, that in turn will support our men and women in uniform, Senator Clinton said.
Rome Air Force Research Laboratories Securely integrating data from disparate data sources is a vital requirement for improving the effectiveness of Air Force Command and Control, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C2ISR). Stovepiped systems have grown over the years with minimal concern for information transfer or sharing between the data source/sensor and end users. The Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) is focused on providing tailorable and actionable information to the warfighter. It accomplishes this by connecting intelligence systems, command and control systems, and other information sources from numerous legacy systems to provide timely, missionspecific information to the warfighter. The end product of JBI is a global information management capability that intelligently disseminates battlespace information to support effective decision making at all levels of a Joint Task Force.
Cortland Cable These funds will enable research designed to reduce the risk associated with integrating synthetic cables into aircraft carrier recovery operations. Technical issues such as hookpoint compatibility, potential abrasion with deck nonskid and tailhook, potential elongation under high temperatures and fatigue life will be addressed through bounded lab experiments. A range of novel materials and cable constructions will be evaluated to determine the optimum cable to transition to the fleet. Funds will be used to investigate the use of lightweight, synthetic materials and novel cable construction to replace the steel cables that recover aircraft aboard U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers. Synthetic cables could improve the factor of safety of the entire system by 40%. Because the strengthtoweight of synthetic materials is 45 times better than steel, system inertia is significantly reduced, enabling the arresting gear to apply breaking force much earlier in the stroke. The use of synthetic cable also possesses a potential weight savings of 60 tons per carrier.
